It's not technically ignoring socket bonus, There's 3 bonus' its not using, the one's on your boots and ring are both hit bonus (and you're over hit cap after reforging out of hit/spirit) not worth aiming for. The second is your chest, and has a 120 int bonus, Less than 1 Brilliant gem. In order to match that socket, you need to trade half of one haste gem for int, and drop half of both the other haste gems for spirit (useless because you're over cap) or stam, which isnt really worth it. So basically you're dropping 1.5 gems worth of haste (480 haste) to gain 200 int, Given that haste is worth more than 0.5 of what int is, This trade is worth it.

It's not technically ignoring socket bonus, There's 3 bonus' its not using, the one's on your boots and ring are both hit bonus (and you're over hit cap after reforging out of hit/spirit) not worth aiming for. The second is your chest, and has a 120 int bonus, Less than 1 Brilliant gem. In order to match that socket, you need to trade half of one haste gem for int, and drop half of both the other haste gems for spirit (useless because you're over cap) or stam, which isnt really worth it. So basically you're dropping 1.5 gems worth of haste (480 haste) to gain 200 int, Given that haste is worth more than 0.5 of what int is, This trade is worth it.

1) I'm seeing a lot of high ranking shadow priests using DI+SW:I on protectors, is it worth it to go DI+SW:I on protectors even though I don't have the 4set yet?
2) If I spec FDCL and my dots and about to expire and I have a proc, in that situation is it procs or dots or the other way around?

1) I'm seeing a lot of high ranking shadow priests using DI+SW:I on protectors, is it worth it to go DI+SW:I on protectors even though I don't have the 4set yet?
2) If I spec FDCL and my dots and about to expire and I have a proc, in that situation is it procs or dots or the other way around?

1. DI + SWI shouldn't be that much apart from FDCL + ToF dps-wise. It might even be better if you're farming protectors and burning through the fight.
2. DP > MB > DoT all the things > FDCL procs > MF.

Given fights like Fallen Protectors and Dark Shamans, how do you usually play in the beginning when everything is clumped? Especially when Heroism is up I sometimes wonder if keeping your dots on all the target is worth it or I might gain dps from only refreshing about 50% of my dots and mindsearing like a champ.

Originally Posted by Dierdre

DP > MB > DoT all the things > FDCL procs > MF.

Looking at this spell priority, how would you rank MindSear depending on the number of targets?

Given fights like Fallen Protectors and Dark Shamans, how do you usually play in the beginning when everything is clumped? Especially when Heroism is up I sometimes wonder if keeping your dots on all the target is worth it or I might gain dps from only refreshing about 50% of my dots and mindsearing like a champ.

Looking at this spell priority, how would you rank MindSear depending on the number of targets?

Thanks in advance

Dots are almost always highest priority for multiple targets, If you're running DI then SWP is higher than normal as it increases the amount of potential orbs generated.
Orbs are still your highest priority at all times on those fights. I'll typically put SWP on all available targets then VT as time permits, and then refresh SWP at full SP once all my trinkets/BL are at the max. Orbs and DP will be dumped into the focus'd target, And Insanity is basically labeled as MFx2 while DP is active. The final refresh if you clip it, is worth slightly less due to Mastery ticks only being for a normal MF at that point.

If you're getting steady DI procs you may wish to stop casting VT on all the targets and only doing what you need to maintain mana levels. The DMG/Cast time is lower on VT, As above this is even more so with DI.

Mind Sear is slightly below Mind Flay on 2 targets, It scales about 2% better with spell power but not quite enough to reach the same value however. In my gear unbuffed I'm around 59.5k dps base dmg on Mind Flay. On 2 targets, Mind Sear does about 51.9k. As long as you don't need the focus'd dps, and cleaving won't hurt anything, On 2 targets with good procs up or 3 targets otherwise Mind Sear will pass in overall dmg.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that with Bloodlust and a Meta Gem procc'ed, If you hit more than 100% haste, the cast time of Mind Flay will be below 1 gcd, meaning you may have a slight gap in between casts, where as Mind Sear does not suffer from this till quite a bit further. This level of haste is attainable with only 18.34% buffed if you have both the Meta Gem and BL active. The difference is bigger for those of us at 50% haste than it is for 41.75%.

Hello. Very new to shadow priest, just starting to get a hang of it, possibly a stupid question but whats the priority on minflay(insanity) if shadowword death is ready? Do I just keep on channeling insanity until its done or do I avoid using insanity to do SW x2 and mindblast?

Hello. Very new to shadow priest, just starting to get a hang of it, possibly a stupid question but whats the priority on minflay(insanity) if shadowword death is ready? Do I just keep on channeling insanity until its done or do I avoid using insanity to do SW x2 and mindblast?

The goal should always be to get as many Devouring Plagues out as often as possible - that is your true damage - Insanity is just a nice bonus

To put it in perspective, note that Insanities damage isn't vastly greater than Mindbender or FDCL - think about how much they buy you - and think about what a small portion any of them get out of your total potential DPS. The majority of our real DPS is Devouring Plague, and the builders we use to get those DPs (Mind Blast, Death), hope that helps

How up-to-date is this guide? Is Intellect > Spellpower > Spirit > Haste > Mastery > Crit still the stat priority? Also I noticed that mindbender was in the spell priority while Solace and Insanity is the recommended talent for that tier. Which one is it? Sorry for all the questions but I'm coming back to WoW and want to have the "right" stuff going on.

How up-to-date is this guide? Is Intellect > Spellpower > Spirit > Haste > Mastery > Crit still the stat priority? Also I noticed that mindbender was in the spell priority while Solace and Insanity is the recommended talent for that tier. Which one is it? Sorry for all the questions but I'm coming back to WoW and want to have the "right" stuff going on.

You sir raise a very good point. I hadn't read the guide for a long time, and it is certainly outdated.

Your stat priority is:
Spirit / Hit until hit cap
Intellect*
Spellpower
Haste until the next attainable haste breakpoint without losing useful** socket bonuses: either 8085, 14873 or 18215 (VT+4 is 18200 but you want to go to GCD cap at 18215)
Crit = Mastery > Haste after haste breakpoint. You want to keep crit and mastery 1:1, especially if you have Purified Bindings of Immerseus and t16 2 pc bonus.

*1 point of Intellect is heavier than 1 of secondary stats, but less than 2. This makes yellow gems and orange gems with int /sec stat better than red gems.
** spirit / hit bonuses are not useful if you're over hit cap and they should therefore be ignored.

Due to this, your gemming strategy should be:

Hit cap:

Under cap

Under cap

Over cap

Over cap

Haste Breakpoint:

Under breakpoint

Over breakpoint

Under breakpoint

Over breakpoint

Red socket

Wicked

Crafty / Keen

Reckless

Artful / Potent

Blue socket

Energized

Misty / Zen

Forceful

Puissant / Jagged

Yellow socket

Quick

Fractured / Smooth

Quick

Fractured / Smooth

t45 and t75 talents are situational

T45From Darkness Comes Light: Better for heavy multidot (e.g. Fallen Proctectors) or high movement fights (H Sha of Pride)Mindbender: Better for... welll... nothing. Not bad, but both FDCL and MFI are slightly better on almost every scenario. I use it for e.g. H Immerseus to hit immerseus while I sear adds.Solace and Insanity: Better on single target when you can afford to stand still for most of the channel time.

All three talents are good, but one is usually situationally better than the others.

t75Twist of Faith: Awesome whenever you can cheese it, i.e. when the fight involves sustained low health targets.Power Infusion: Good for whenever you need burst at fixed intervals. Not really as useful this tier as it was on e.g. Spine of Deathwing, since your damage without PI is usually sufficient and both ToF and DI are better overall.Divine Insight: Great for sustained orb generation, usually on par with ToF, better when you can't cheese ToF and/or for high movement fights.

Both ToF and DI are usually better than PI, the choice is situational depending on the particular fight.

How up-to-date is this guide? Is Intellect > Spellpower > Spirit > Haste > Mastery > Crit still the stat priority? Also I noticed that mindbender was in the spell priority while Solace and Insanity is the recommended talent for that tier. Which one is it? Sorry for all the questions but I'm coming back to WoW and want to have the "right" stuff going on.

Ya it's probably due for an update if not a full rewrite - maybe I should just delay a full rewrite until WoD beta is up though at least - I'll try to update it sometime in the next couple days

Got in a dispute wether I should or shouldnt dot Garrosh and weapon and MS it all the way during P1.
Normal.

Ty!

The precise answer to your question depends on your composition and the time the adds and weapon are up. The answer to your question generally does not matter due to your raid leader's decision being final (and dispute being nearly irrelevant) plus current gear levels (if you got issues in P1 you are going to have a tough time later on). In the case you are still undergeared the following counts:

Some classes gain single target DPS from AoE, others lose. You should spec into ToF on Garrosh and as such you can use both the weapon and the adds for ToF proc. I don't bother with Mind Sear on Heroic since we got a lot of other classes who don't lose DPS from it. I do want ToF proc and orbs though but unfortunately the % for us on the adds target health is 40-50%.

If you want only ToF proc one SWP on add does it for you. If you want to refresh your ToF proc SWD works too, but later on, leading to potentional ToF downtime.

Mind Spiking the weapon is inefficient. Either the weapon is going to be focused by people because dots alone dont cut it. In such a case your best bet is to get it to 35% and then leave it alone (for ToF and say Shadowburn/Havoc from your locks). You or any ranged can do that. If you do have enough multidot, let them all multidot the weapon and then either cleave adds down or single target the boss. Multidot is a DPS increase for you. If you use the tactic where you bounce between 2 marks (a popular tactic) what matters is that the weapon is (nearly) dead before the next weapon has spawned. From a min max PoV this isn't the same as the weapon being dead! You can actually leave it barely alive, for ToF procs, but this requires cooperation from your entire team.